Group claims massive British onshore oil find

AN oil exploration group was yesterday celebrating what it described as probably the most significant onshore discovery of oil in Britain for two decades.

Pentex Oil UK said it had found the equivalent of more than 100 million barrels of oil on farmland at Avington, near Winchester in Hampshire.

The company, which operates wells in Hampshire and the East Midlands, said the find is 30% larger than its biggest existing British reserve, which is about 15 miles away at Stockbridge.

Pentex Oil UK's managing director, Jeff Graham, said it represented "probably the most significant onshore discovery in Britain for the past 20 years".

The group has carried out preliminary explorations and hopes to produce oil commercially if further tests are positive.

"The discovery provides a major stimulus to British onshore oil and gas business," Mr Graham said.

Pentex Oil UK already produces the equivalent of 2,500 barrels of oil a day from four onshore wells at Stockbridge and 60 at Gainsborough in the East Midlands.

It also has offshore interests in the Balmoral oilfield in the North Sea.

It found the oil after securing a licence from the Department of Trade and Industry and carrying out a drilling test, and reported its results at the weekend.

A subsequent well is now being drilled to find out whether production from the reserve would be commercially viable. If the tests are positive, Pentex hopes to begin producing oil at the site by the end of the year.

It would be tankered to BP's refinery at Southampton.

Pentex holds 50% of the block the area that companies are licensed to explore with the remainder held by Egdon-Resources, Sterling-Resources, YCI and Northern Petroleum.

Bank of Scotland-financed Pentex is owned by Mr Graham and business partner Russell Jordan.